DAY ELEVEN - Bareback and a Bath

Blasted feet warmed up again slightly overnight, but this morning they were okay. We are at the point now where there is nothing else to do, really. Spoke with her owners and they are going to get her a grazing muzzle for camp, which will be good and help keep the grass intake minimal. She has lost weight since she arrived, I noticed this when photographing her today and comparing it to the Day 1 pics. (See photos at http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=68746&l=b5cf5&id=549994304).

I decided to see if she was good to ride bareback, so jumped on and she didn't seem at all fussed. She's only 14.1hh but I can still only vault on if she is standing on a slope. Pathetic but true. I rode her through the paddocks and did all the gates mounted, which I haven't tried before. She was very good. We went along the track and there was a man spraying weeds in the willow grove next to the river, this was very scary until I called out to the man and he said hello back. Pony then realised that it was a person, not a scary monster, and settled quickly. We went into the river and splashed around a bit, then almost got caught in a bit of a current. Willow wasn't too impressed with me for getting her into a wee predicament and then complained by splashing the water with her front leg instead of standing still as requested. A couple of sharp words soon put a stop to that however. She settled and stood patiently in the water for a bit, then got a glimpse of the spraying man through the trees. Now he was all scary again and she was up on her tippy toes, dancing across the stones and being generally foolish. I told her to behave herself as I was bareback and didn't fancy landing on the rocks, and she managed to control her madness and resume sanity.

We wandered happily back to the yard where a lovely bath awaited. Hehehe. Pony was none too impressed with the idea of a bath, especially taking a dislike to having her mane washed, and was a bit finicky with her back legs as usual. But she settled eventually and I washed everything except her face and forelock. Pics on Facebook.

Tomorrow Roly is having his shoes done, so I will ask Heather's farrier to have a look at Willow's feet and see what he thinks, before I increase her workload again. There was very little heat in them today, happily.